A long time ago I preceptored with a naturopath who was fond of having his handouts typeset by a local printer. He was an older style ‘nature-cure’ type healer, and his handouts contained some very far out stuff. When I asked him why he went to the great expense of having a printer typeset his advice, he replied that ‘when people see something in print, especially a format that they know is not homemade, they take it more seriously.’

Twenty years later we now would appear to know better. The easy availability of laser printers and desktop publishing software can make any would-be Hemingway look the part. Of course there is a price to pay for the ubiquity of it all. Nice-looking documents have become the very essence of banality and reader confidence further eroded by the inclusion of misspellings, bad punctuation and terrible font choices.

Many readers will remember that absolute reverence by which one beheld the evening news in our childhood. Walter Cronkite and The Huntley–Brinkley Report not only acted the part of impartial newscasters; they looked it as well.

Having just seen the most recent Democratic debate on ABC-TV, I am even more convinced that the end is near for what might be called ‘filtered broadcasting.’ Instead of any sort of important discussion about issues which are of paramount importance to this country (and indeed the world) we were treated to a long inquisition about whether wearing an porcelain American flag pin is a sign of patriotism in a two hour long Calvary of he-said, she-said.

In the arts we have recently seen the emergence of a new kind of artist. The conventional record labels, having seen their profits eroded by downloading and lack of consumer interest, can only play by the numbers and hope for another Britney Spears or similar mega-mediocrity. The industry crowns artless (but safe and cute) adolescents “American Idols” when in fact they have demonstrated no skills beyond what one would expect from a decent karaoke bar singer.

Composers and musicians who actually do have something to say have opted instead to release material direct to the public, often with a payment-optional policy. Although this would appear to be financial suicide, surprisingly, many of these ventures have been economically successful.

Three decades ago Steward Brand said ‘information wants to be free.’ Brand’s WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) was a precursor of the Internet, the greatest source of unfiltered information in human history.

When information is free, people get to choose what they want to hear and read about. When it is filtered, news organizations, corporations, professional societies and political parties choose it for them.

Years ago doctors would never think of explaining their premises and motives. To whom? The village blacksmith? What does he know of chemistry? Now consumers can harness the power of the Internet to research their health issues to any depth they desire. Yet most doctors still function in filter mode, thinking that the deck is still stacked in their favor.

It's not.

Doctors have to learn about everything. A patient has to just learn about what is wrong with himself. You would be surprised by the speed in which a motivated patient can become a virtual expert in their condition.

In my vision of the future we will all become our own ‘aggregators,’ selecting information sources from an abundance of highly specific and single purpose ‘channels.’ Once aggregated into our lives, all these channels will fuse into a Multiverse of realities shared between like-minded individuals.

For example, you’re currently on the ‘Peter D’Adamo Channel.’

This will not stop filtering. Evidence suggests that we all filter out information that we disagree with. In True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, Farhad Manjoo cites an experiment in which smokers and non-smokers could vary the amount of interference in static filled recordings of speeches. When smokers heard a speech about smoking and cancer risk, they did not try to improve the clarity of the recording. But they did push the button to get a clearer version of the recording when a speech was playing that said that there was no link between smoking and cancer. In non-smokers the exact opposite was true.

Maybe I’m just a libertarian (or just an aging hippy) but I would opt for choosing my own filters --versus having information filtered for me—- especially when the filtering is being done by individuals and organizations that I do not trust and for which I have no respect.

11 comments

I have just had minor surgery on my face and have a couple of stitches in as I write this to be removed next week. You recommend in your book I take 500 mg of vit C and 10,000 iu of Vit A (as an A type). I have bought some Vit A caps with 800ug. Is this the same symbol as the iu? Just need to know how many caps to take.

Thanks for you help. By the way happy to fill in your feedback sheet when you can send me one. Have been keeping to the A type diet (90% of the time) and I have noticed a real reduction in the amount of mucus I create (which came a lot from milk and meat products before). Only recently have I moved off bread and pastries (found this a tougher move than subsidising certain fish, fruit and veg products for the type A diet). Have replaced this with rice cakes and so far I seem to be pretty happy with this.

The art to the success of this plan is to arm yourself with a list of +ve foods you recommend in your book before shopping and make sure your house only has 'your type blood' food in store otherwise we tend to slip up and eat the wrong stuff which may taste good but has no energy in it.

I look forward to your answer.

Robert (UK London)

900 mcg of vitamin A is about 3000 IU, so you'd have to take about three of these daily. ---P

Just read must read post on Politics of Health-Popular Culture&musings by@ obertancat @chrisbrogan http://snurl.com/24zns so what dya think?

I'm still digesting-do favor my own filtering of everything.

BTW, 2 lbs 1/2loss waist size 2 days on combined BTD & GTD and going strong. Gave up pistachios, cashews and chocolate even if it was 77% cocao. I think I shrunk my stomach and no more craving triggers.

Good to see a like minded libertarian. It seems the natural law " for every force there is an equal and opposite force" is in play here. As the internet and free information has grown, filtered information from mainstream media has also increased. We have a choice (still) as to which pill we would like to swallow...borrowing from the movie The Matrix, the terms blue pill and red pill have become a popular metaphor for the choice between blissful ignorance (blue)or filtered information...and embracing the sometimes painful truth (red)..unfiltered information.The latter is always the harder path.

I'm glad you put "pen" to your musings about present day filtering. Enjoyed it every much. If there is anything I hate it is some entity "dressing" something up so we can "understand" it better. They change a word here and a word there and the whole thing has lost its real meaning completely. I see this happening all the time, and I see people reacting to it exactly as the entity expected them to react. Your shedding the light of day on some of this was very refreshing!

Hi,
I just recently stumbled across your book "Eat right 4 your type" and have a couple of questions, that if you don't mind I would like to ask you:
1) I was astonished to see that as a type A I love to eat a lot (and I mean like 70%) of the foodstuff that I'm supposed to avoid. Have you encountered this in the past in your patients? I mean, shouldn't my body make foodstuffs that are bad for me distasteful and foodstuffs that are good for me taste good?
2) The main motivation to read your book was that I feel a lack of energy a lot of times. Even after sleeping 10 hours I don't feel recharged. Would a disciplined switch to a blood type A diet help me get more energy?
3) I have been drinking regularly whey protein shakes in the morning or after workouts. Whey is a foodstuff I should avoid. Does that also apply for whey isolates, which make up the protein shakes?

Thank you very much for your time and insights, that even though I'm just starting to get into this, I feel that it will help me to get on track again.

I don't have cable and I am always amazed at how, when I do have a chance to watch C-SPAN at someone else's house, within about five minutes, I know more about a candidate's substantive ideas on issues and policy than I could get in months of watching network television. It is very dismaying how network news focuses on what one candidate said about the other, the gaffe de jour, if someone's laugh is strange sounding, if someone else's enthused exclamation is the end of his political career, etc., and they virtually never talk about the candidates' substantive IDEAS on issues. The debate on ABC the other night was the perfect example of that, although I must admit to being glad some of the non-issue questions were asked of a certain candidate, but did it have to take up the first 63 minutes or whatever it was of the entire debate?!!! Where were the questions on energy policy, CAFE standards, shifting investment and incentives to green energy, health care, saving Social Security, child care, foreign affairs, etc.? I don't care if someone wears a flag pin, I care what they plan to do for the country that the symbol stands for. But we didn't get to hear much about that.

I'm a libertarian (and a Libertarian, i.e., member of the Libertarian Party). Your emphasis on individuality was what caught my attention one day years ago when I saw Eat Right 4 Your Type on a bookstore shelf; it called to my libertarian instincts.

I've often thought since then that you must be one; you often sound like the ones I know, especially when you talk about writing lines of code, or music, or chemistry, or the frustrations of government bureaucracy. The LP is "the party of principle," and attracts people who look for truths to live by.

You might be interested to know that one of the presidential candidates introduced legislation to make any truthful health claim legal: allowing you, farmers and herbalists to recommend foods for their medical benefits. In other words, free speech not just for drug companies, but for regular people.

He also introduced legislation to get the federal government out of the constitutionally unauthorised business of regulating marijuana or raw milk on the grounds that consumers should be the ones exercising their judgement individually. Although he is both a congressman and a medical doctor, he doesn't think Congress is qualified to tell people what to consume and that laws don't cure addiction.

If you are interested in healthcare freedom, the restoration of the relationship between doctor and patient (with the medical industrial complex and government out of the way), Dr. Ron Paul is the Republican candidate often marginalized as "just a libertarian," but he does come up with some great health-related, freedom-promoting legislation.

When time I got hold of the book eat right for your type I immediately read the contents from cover to cover. I am a blood type A and has lots of unhealthy habits. it taught me much about the right food to eat and it worked on me keeping it religiously on what to avoid. Today I am totally different from what I was before starting Jan./06. You are a God-sent to help care for the world of sick humanity.